Orð og tunga - 01.06.2013, Blaðsíða 132

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Orð og tunga
Berlin and Kay (1969:2) determined the existence of eleven basic
color terms that match all of the four characteristics: white, black,
red, green, yellow, blue, brown, pink, purple, orange, and grey. Their
conclusions for the establishment of an evolutionary sequence and
the different language stages are summarized in Table 2.
i
white
black
II III IV V VI
red
z green
yellow
> ellow Si þjue brown -»
-» green z
VII
purple
pink
orange
grey
Table 2. The introduction ofbasic color terms into a language, according to Berliti and Kay
(1969).
According to Berlin and Kay (1969), all languages can be assigned
to one - and only one - of the seven stages at a certain point in a
language's development.1 Concerning stage VII, Berlin and Kay
(1969:21-22) note that "the remaining basic categories, purple, pink,
orange, and grey, are quickly added to the lexicon and ... in no par-
ticular order." They further explain that "[s]tage VII systems include
all eight-, nine-, ten-, and eleven-term systems" (1969:22).
Kirsten Wolf (2006:189; 2009:223; 2010:110) maintains that Old
Norse-Icelandic is an early stage VII language with eight basic color
terms: svartr, hvítr, rauðr, grænn, gulr, blár, brúnn, and grár. She notes
(2006:187; see also 2010:110) that a ninth basic color term, bleikr (for
pink), has been added to the color lexicon in Modern Icelandic, which
in Old Norse-Icelandic denoted simply a light color or light shade
of color as in "pale," "wan," "bleached," "blond," "fair," or "light-
colored."2 In accordance with Berlin and Kay's definition, Modern Ice-
landic would, therefore, be a stage VII language with nine basic color
terms, lacking basic color terms for purple and orange (see also Pois-
son 2011:22, 26).3 Jackson Crawford (2011), however, argues convinc-
ingly that the Icelandicfjólublár 'blue like a violet/ commonly used for
purple, should be considered a basic color term despite its compound
1 Berlin and Kay's study and evolutionary sequence of color-terms are certainly
not undisputed and have been revised since the publication of Basic Color Terms
(1969). For critiques, see e.g., Hickerson 1971; Witkowski and Brown 1977.
2 For a more detailed discussion of bleikr in Old Norse-Icelandic, see Wolf 2005.
3 Wolf (2010:110) mentions that "UUa (purple) ... has very recently entered the lan-
guage, and órans (orange) is in the process of entering the language." Jackson
Crawford and Susanne Arthur's (née Fahn) research on these two color terms,
however, has since shown that this statement may have to be revised (see below
for órans and Crawford 2011 for lilla).